Part 2 Battlestar Galactica Finding Humanity: Saving Grace

Chapter 21

XXI

Three Weeks Later

Starbuck awoke again in a hot/cold sweat.

Godsdamn that fraking dream.

She had been having the same dream, or a variation of the same dream, ever since Helo had showed her the picture of the Mandala from the Algae Planet, and how it almost exactly matched a drawing she had been doing over and over again since she was a child. Problem was, the Mandala had been created over four thousand years ago.

Since then, she couldn't get Leoben, and the things he had told her over the years out of her head. When she had interrogated and tortured him shortly after the destruction of The Colonies, he had told her that she had a destiny already written. In the Doll House he had told her, quite seriously, that he was only trying to help her to see the truth of her life.

"This has all happened before, and would all happen again", he had said, while she tortured him, the man not giving an inch on what he knew. With the dreams, she was starting to see things while awake-a vision of a little girl, that looked remarkably like herself and Kacey, who would vanish in an instant.

She would be back at her flat on Caprica, trying to whitewash the large painting of that mandala, trying to erase it from her memory. Leoben would then be behind her, and put his arms around her, whisper in her ear, then turn her around hard, and kiss her even harder, Kara kissing back still harder, until they were both on the floor, writhing in white paint, Leoben eventually buried deep within her. She had even orgasmed once, which, fortunately, hadn't awaken Laura. But some of the nightmares had awaken her wife.

They had talked about her childhood, Laura shuddering every time she thought about what Kara endured.

"She was dealing with a lot, babe", Kara said to her wife, while looking at nothing in particular one evening, after they had made love. "She told me I was different from the other kids. That I had to be a warrior like her. Taught me that fear gets you killed, and that anger keeps you alive."

"Well", Laura said with some bitterness, "she certainly gave you plenty to be angry about. She split your head open with a broomstick handle because you didn't make your bed?" Laura shuddered again.

"Know how I got back at her?"

Laura gave an un-amused chuckle. "Do I want to know?"

Kara continued as if she didn't hear her spouse. "During the first Cylon War, she was stationed with the First Marines on Mehidra. Stinking jungles that you wouldn't believe. She had this phobia of insects the rest of her life." Kara took a breath. Hated the damn things. So I go out and buy a bunch of rubber bugs, and I slipped into her closet, and I put them all over her shoes.

In the dim light of their bedroom, she saw Kara give a ghost of a predatory smile, that made her shudder again. "And?"

"She screamed her fraking head off", she said, looking right at Laura. "I go in, and she's trying to smash them with her shoes, but that's just making them bounce around even more."

Laura looked at her wife. "You must have caught hell for that."

Kara almost imperceptibly nodded. "She grabbed my hand, held it in the door jamb, and slammed the door."

Laura wanted to be sick, but held it together. "Aw, gods, frak me."

Another ghost of a smile fleeted across Kara's face. "It was worth it, though."

Laura was becoming increasingly worried about her wife.

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